Tulsa Public Schools is cutting programs and personnel in special education.
Those cuts come, after shrinking allocations from the state. Newschannel 8's Kim Jackson explains, this could impact a majority of students.
You might be surprised at the issues some students deal with in the classroom. In the past, anger management and counseling have been available, but now those programs are going away for some students.
In 2008 we featured an anger management class. Administrators say it cut suspension rates in half, at East Central, at one point. But three years later, the class, as students knew it, is going away.
"I think we are going to see a definite impact and probably pretty quickly," said Jim Walker of Youth Services of Tulsa.
Walker says his agency provided counselors and social workers, for one high school and three middle schools. Their contract has ended.
"When the funding is cut, the money has to come from somewhere and we are sorry that it is us and this program but we do understand that the school has to make hard decisions," he explained.
The district has seen hard budget cuts, 6-million dollars for the coming school year. In addition, millions in stimulus money, went away, after last school year.
"85-percent of our kids that come from disadvantaged homes and these programs provide a huge service and it's too bad we were cut like we were from the legislature this year," said Dr. Keith Ballard of Tulsa Public Schools.
Dr. Ballard says it wasn't just budget cuts. But also the scholarship program for children with special needs that allows them to attend private schools.
"If you have four kids in a class, you are going to provide a teacher and now all of a sudden you have to pay a private tuition for one to go out and you are still paying for the teacher," said Ballard.
16 teaching positions have been eliminated, but no teachers have been let go. 40 paraprofessionals have been eliminated as well.
But for regular ed students, they will miss counseling that was once available.to help them cope with outside stress.
Parents help is still available. Youth services offers family counseling on a sliding scale. You can find more information, from the link, with this story.
Credit: Bobby Farquhar
